How one of Redlands' oldest trees was mistakenly cut down

Frontier Communications has apologized to the Redlands community after mistakenly cutting down a 100-year-old tree planted by former civic leaders.

A landscape crew hired by Frontier began removing the Triangle Park oak tree, on city property at Citrus Avenue and Cajon Street, on Sept. 28.

According to Frontier, the crew believed the tree was dead.

“This was an unintentional mistake, and we apologize for the crew’s actions,” Trent Anderson, senior vice president of Frontier, said by email. “We value our relationship with the community, and are already working with the city of Redlands to replace the tree and on additional steps to restore an important community resource.”

City staffers had been working to save the tree, Erik Reeves, a city field services supervisor, said in March.

City notables planted the oak tree in what was once Triangle Park during a 1916 Arbor Day celebration.

City officials believe the oak was one of the oldest trees downtown, and staffers had been taking measures to protect its health, including manually watering the planter weekly, city spokesman Carl Baker wrote on Facebook.

“A great deal of progress was being made, according to an independent arborist hired by the city,” the post said.

City staffers noticed the landscape crew from Frontier cutting down the tree and stopped the process, but an arborist believes the tree would not survive.

Baker said staffers consulted with the chairman of the city’s Street Tree Committee and shared the arborist’s report.

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